Labour is keeping up the pressure on David Cameron's director of communications, Andy Coulson, by asking whether he has had civil service help over claims he denies of complicity in illegal phone hacking while editing the News of the World, it is reported today.

Shadow Cabinet Office minister Jon Trickett is to write to Sir Gus O'Donnell, head of the civil service, to ask if official time was spent advising Coulson, the Financial Times reports today. A Conservative source told it there was "no intervention" and the question was pointless.